Miami City Ballet performs at Les etes de la danse Festival at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, July 6-23, 2011. The Miami Herald previews the performances and includes a video of MCB dancers trying out their French.

The company will have 17 performances with 14 different works. That's a lot !

Of particular interest for the moment is the return of the very talented Daniel Baker and Jeremy Cox to the roster. Also Yann Trividic has come out of retirement this year. This is one of the things that I like so much about the Miami City Ballet. It really does seem like a family at times. And a very talented family indeed !

Thanks, wayne, for the info. Rebecca King's "Tendus Under a Palm Tree" is a very fine effort for one.

From Rebecca King (Corps de Ballet, Miami City Ballet) after the first evening's performance.

"As always, despite nerves and anticipation, you could tell that everyone was having a wonderful time out on the stage. I have never been a part of such a long curtain call. The applause went on and on. It was such an amazing moment, I will never forget it. When the curtain finally fell, a rush of emotion hit us all. We had just done it! We had just debuted in France; we are now an international company. Everyone was embracing, crying tears of joy, and congratulating each other on an a successful first Paris performance. I felt so proud to be a part of this exceptional group of dancers.

"This morning when we came into class, Edward [Edward Villella, founder et director, Miami City Ballet] shared his emotions with us, tearfully telling us how proud he was of us, saying “I love you guys”. You could tell he was on cloud nine, and we are right up there with him."

"As much as I love to dance all these ballets, every day I look most forward to the curtain falling on each ballet and the audience reacts to what they have just seen. Even if I am not onstage, I run down from my dressing room just to hear the applause. They send such a warm appreciation through their applause and cheers that it often brings tears to our eyes. Never have I been a part of a performance where the curtain needs to be taken back up for more bows because the audience simply will not stop clapping.

I was able to get to Paris to see these four and it was great. After 18 days ( 14 different works ! ) of almost nonstop performing (two, two day breaks) they were as full of energy and as doing as well as I've ever seen them.

The audiences loved them ! After each performance and numerous curtain calls, the stage curtain had to be lit up to stop the applause !

I just go back and haven't been on the computer in a while. I will be doing a lot more traveling, but will try to write some more if I can. From what I've read on the French internet, not only did they really impress folks with their skills, but they also touched a lot of hearts. They did mine.

This is something that I would like to share. It is a lovely comment by Sophia (probably the most prolific and certainly one of the most informed and observant commentators on ballet on the internet in France) at "Dansomanie."

This George Balanchine masterpiece was the very last dance performed and, for me, was one of the absolute highlights. It brought the house down with applause and couldn't have been a better ending to a spectacular series of performances.

I have seen the Mariinsky version and the two performances couldn't have been more different and yet each one was so wonderfully beautiful. The Mariinsky performance was so beautifully refined and airy, like cosmic waves. The Miami City Ballet version was like real ocean waves breaking across the horizon.

The leads were danced by Mary Carmen Catoya, Patricia Delgado and Renato Penteando. Mary Carmen Catoya, who is perhaps one the more 'classical' of the dancers, not only was that, but typical to this performance, she also ripped around the stage with magnificent jetlike jumps and sailed through other lovely sequences with a gravity-doesn't-matter sense of blissfulness.

Patricia Delgado is Jeanette Delgado's sister. If any of the women could be called the company star at moment, Jeanette Delgado, the sunshiny lightning bolt, would certainly be among the top contenders. Yet I've always had a strong affection for Patricia Delgado, who I view as being more restrained in a subtly beautiful manner. Well I really got fooled the night before. The streak of lightning in Twyla Tharp's speed of light "In The Upper Room," that I assumed was the megawatt Jeanette Delgado, was actually Patricia. I couldn't believe it. I thought that it was a misprint in the program and I'm still not totally convinced, but it all seemed to be true when I double checked where everybody was performing in the other works.

Well in "Ballet Imperial" she did it again ! She was a firecracker and yet, such a lovely one. Brava, brava, Patricia !

Renato Penteando was a knock out. The Miami City Ballet men have really emerged as high art powerhouses this year.

This performance of "Ballet Imperial" was perhaps the finest expression that I've yet experienced of these dancers' remarkable ability to seem loose as can be and yet so totally together and refined at the same time.

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